Sunday, 1 November 2015

13 Oct 2015 - My accommodation for this Autumn trip 2015

안녕하세요 ^^ Today, I shall start blogging about my Autumn trip back home.Reached Incheon airport on 13 Oct around 6am.As usual, I took the Arex to Hongdae. Yeap. Staying in Hongdae again. And yes, it was still AirBnb.

View of my favorite neighbourhood, 연남동 from my apartment ^^

Well equipped kitchen.However, you need to pull the wire across to the next table if you need to use the toaster or microwave.

Body lotion is also provided. However, my host may have forgotten to refill the shampoo. Anyway, it was not an issue to me cos I always bring my own shampoo.

Overall, I am pretty satisfied with this apartment. Clean, neat and bright. The best part is the location which was about 6 mins walk to the main shopping street of Hongdae and Yeonnam-dong is just next to my apartment. There is nothing wrong with this apartment. However, perhaps the host is relatively new to this Airbnb thing, so she did not give clear instructions as to where to throw the rubbish daily. She told me go down to level 1 and turn right. I did that and could not see any rubbish dump around... I found it eventually but it was not somewhere that I would thought of. The rubbish dump was outside the building. It would be better if she could show it to me personally. In addition, the host did not give instructions how to use the washing machine. She told me she will work on the instructions on how to use it.

The rubbish dump

If you have followed my blog, you would have know about my encounter with the previous AirBnb host. He told me Airbnb is illegal in Korea and have to cancel my reservation. ..blah ..blah...blah...

Ok anyway, one fine night around 7.30pm, I reached the apartment lift lobby and saw a guy in uniform talking to the security guard. He approached everyone waiting for the lift and asked everyone except me,"Are you a tourist?". I told him,"I am tourist." He asked me for some information like, where did I book my apartment from, my host's contact and showed him the Airbnb reservation. I was a bit doubtful to tell a stranger so many things but I checked his ID and uniform. It seemed like many tourists in the building were AirBnb guests and had their place checked by him already. He requested to take pictures of my apartment. I began to trust him when he said he can take pictures from the door entrance without coming into the apartment. He probably have sensed that I would feel uncomfortable with just two of us alone in the apartment. He asked me to write a statement on how much I paid for the apartment, where I am from and the duration of my stay, He also snapped a picture of my passport but he allowed me to cover the important information. Well, I covered my picture and NRIC no. He laughed and said I covered too many important information but he did not insist anything that I don't want to.

I asked him if Airbnb is illegal in Korea. He told me Airbnb is legal for tourists but illegal for hosts as the government did not give approval to allow Airbnb to operate in that building. He said the government did not order a shut down of Airbnb operation in Korea. The hosts will have to pay a fine and the police will conduct a check again few months down the road. If the host is caught again, they will have to pay another fine, maybe more this time. I think there are too many Airbnb apartments in Hongdae and it takes a lot of time & effort to check.

The tourist police assured me that I am legal to stay and not to worry. Should I encounter any emergency problem, call them(Was it 120???) or 1330 for tourist help line(non emergency). He also advised to me not to go out late on my own hahahahaa Btw, he is very good looking lor!! Hahahaha My attention was on him and his fluent English; not so much on his investigation hahahaha

He called my host but my host told him to call the next day using office phone. Nothing wrong with that. I would have requested the same if I receive a call from someone claiming to be the police. Well, Mr policeman did not insist any further. He told me not to tell, listen and believe the host too much; believe the Police instead. I totally agreed.

The new police unit called the “tourist police” has officially been launched in Seoul on October 16, 2013.

재영 said he got a cultural shock when I showed him the pictures of these tourist police. His reaction was a cultural shock to me as well ㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎErrmmm....pardon me but I have to confess that all the while, my mind was thinking of taking a picture with him or just him alone but I dare not hahah. You can read more about tourist police from KTO

Out of courtesy, I texted my host to inform her on this but I did not want to tell her everything. Here's our conversation and I was not pleased when she asked questions like "How they know you are tourist?", "What did you write in the statement?" and "So you wrote everything....?" Ermm....I can understand you want to know what I told the police but "So you wrote everything....?". Her questions made me feel as though I have something to hide 헉..

I do not want to reveal her name and link becos I think she is not the only host to encounter this.

Will I go for Airbnb again for my future trips back home?My answer is still YES ^^It is your choice to choose whatever accommodation you want.This is just for sharing purpose.

2 comments:

I read your post was like all serious in the beginning then when it came to the part "he is very good looking lor!! Hahahaha My attention was on him and his fluent English; not so much on his investigation hahahaha" me beh tahan d and lol .... I used AIRBNB for the first time in September and I really enjoyed it. I stayed in a private room with the host as well living in the house instead of and an apartment building. Phew..... If not should I would encounter the same.

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About me

안녕하세요 ^^ I love Korea but I'm always proud to be a Singaporean! This blog is to share anything of what I love and find interesting of Korea. There are still many things that I do not know about Korea but I hope that my trips’ experiences will be of some help to people who are planning to visit Korea on their own for the first time ^^ All information such as directions, bus schedules, existence of shops/places etc furnished in this blog is subjected to changes by the relevant authorities. I do not have the time to check and give the latest updates. Hope you understand. Thank you.